Dead of Summer Season 1 Episode 10 Review: She Talks To Angels
Jay Ruymann
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Neither can live while the other survives... Wait, it isn't Harry Potter weekend yet?
On Dead of Summer Season 1 Episode 10, Jessie is tasked with the most stressful game of Marco Polo she'll ever play in her life with Amy chasing after her with that crazed look and sharpened ax.
It's no fun when you don't play, Jessie. WHERE'S YOUR CAMP SPIRIT?
Amy
And then there were three.
After a summer of heartbreak, death, and betrayal, Camp Stillwater's desperate, dark, demonized version of The Hunger Games left three counselors standing.
Yet seemingly the two out of three were just filler characters for the summer.
Drew and Blair, after returning the children to safety, went back to Camp Stillwater after yielding a warning from Anton that their friends needed help. Unfortunately, only Jessie was able to be saved.
Alex: What are you talking about?
Amy: He put the last piece of his soul inside of you. So now I can't leave until it's destroyed.
Alex. Why did you have to play the hero now? Was it seeing Blotter's head as a makeshift tetherball that brought feelings of resentment and the need to prove yourself? Why couldn't you do that without taking an ax to the heart in a desperate attempt to save Jessie's life?
I'd say he more than made up for lacing Blotter's bottle with acid by inadvertently saving the entire world by saving Jessie's life. Alexi returned; he wasn't Alex Powell, strong and "American," in that moment. He was Alexi, his father's son, a son that his father could've finally been proud of.
And poor Garrett. His death led him to his father's arms once again, but now his mother is left behind without anyone, and his relationship with Jessie that was just beginning is gone.
Amy, my deadly, naive, evil favorite. Before this episode, I would've wished for Amy to find her happy ending and a life free of pain.
But Amy brought the pain upon herself and this episode proved how psychotic she really was before the blunt force trauma that killed her was administered. The deadliest camp game ever commenced, and Amy was running around killing people, including 4 police officers, with her ax.
She would've stopped at nothing to leave camp with Malphas in tow, which doesn't quite make sense considering she kept calling Camp Stillwater home. Wouldn't she have wanted to stay and build a life for herself there if that was the case?
Nothing is sadder than Cricket's death. Still. Nothing is.
Blair: It's gonna be me and you forever, isn't it?
Cricket: Pretty much. I hate to break it to you, but you're stuck with me.
How we wish that Cricket and Blair could've gone on their road trip to find themselves and happiness after camp, but things don't always work out as planned. It's great that Blair and Drew survived, but they were two of the least developed characters all season. Blair didn't even have a flashback episode.
They weren't involved with any of the crazy ritual stuff, except the seance, but they survived out of everyone? Everyone besides Blotter would've made better candidates to stay alive because they actually had to do something to stay alive.
Joel. Sweet, camera-obsessed Joel that saved the day from the grave as his corpse was chasing Jessie around. His filming habits were quite perverse, especially at the beginning of the season as we thought he was recording inappropriate moments with Deb.
His camera ultimately stopped Malphas though, which is just a shock to everyone. In a way, Joel avenged his brother's suicide by taking down the demons that tormented him and drove him to that point.
Deb, what did you do?
Amy had something on you, or rather Malphas did, but what? Why is your time at Camp Stillwater as a counselor worth going back and revisiting as the entirety of Season 2? What darker secrets could this camp hold besides the dark spirits?
Many suspect Deb of being Amy's mother, her real mother, and that Amy was adopted which is why she didn't feel like part of that family that she murdered.
A good theory, but even better would be that Malphas was her father. That would explain the connection to the lake when she first arrived. Maybe Malphas possessed Keith on the night that they did the deed?
Could that be why Keith's spirit was at camp, even though he died miles away in a hotel room?
Nothing happens by accident.
Garrett's father
Jessie's character development may be the most shocking twist of the entire summer.
Everyone hated Jessie from the moment we met her. The stereotypical bad girl act didn't do wonders for creating fans, especially as she was paired against "innocent" Amy. But the switch in their characters was stunning.
Who would've suspected Jessie to be the innocent one? The one to save the day and stop a demon that had been tormenting Camp Stillwater for over 100 years?
Jessie did what she had to do, again, and stayed alive, killed Amy, and killed Malphas. In the process, she lost Garrett, the possible love of her life, but she gained two lifelong friends that will always understand what she went through, and the strength to turn in her mother and take back her rightful place at university.
If given a Season 2, the show will follow Deb's time at Camp Stillwater in 1970, but even more interesting is the potential for Season 3. The producers mentioned that Season 3 would potentially take place in 2004 with one of these survivors taking over as Camp Leader.
Who do you think it would be? My guess would be not Jessie. Place yourself in Jessie's shoes and ask whether you'd ever want to return to the place where you died, were chased all around the grounds trying to stay alive, and killed someone with an ax.
More than likely it would be Blair coming back to reunite with Cricket in some way, just by being at the place that she died.
There's so much potential for the slightly cheesy, yet shocking horror television series to provide great stories and shocks if given more seasons, so let's hope that Freeform decides to give this series another chance to build up.
After all, it's an anthology, and if it's anything like American Horror Story, ratings usually get better as the series progresses and the writers settle down a bit.
Don't miss out on any of this show and watch Dead of Summer online right here at TV Fanatic, or watch again, if you're like me and can't get enough of this twisty series.
Jay Ruymann was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He retired in January 2018.
